Patent Application
20220341081
The present disclosure relates to a horizontal mount laundry treatment machine.
This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Laundry treatment machines, such as automatic washing machines, include a tub suspended within a housing, wherein laundry placed therein is treated, e.g., washed. Generally, the tub is a cylindrical structure defining a cylindrical treatment chamber. The tub may be mounted horizontally within the housing (a “horizontal mount” machine), in which case the treatment chamber is accessed through an opening in a front end of the treatment chamber through a door mounted on the front side of the laundry treatment machine. Washer/dryer combo machines (i.e., a single machine in which a load of laundry is both washed and dried in the same treatment chamber) are normally configured as horizontal mount machines as described above.
Horizontal mount machines typically include counterweights to ballast the drum when the treatment chamber spins about its longitudinal axis, such as during a spin cycle. Counterweights may be made from a variety of materials, such as concrete, steel, and other dense materials. It is known to attach counterweights to the top and bottom of the outer surface of the drum. Attaching counterweights to the top and bottom on the drum of a horizontal mount laundry treatment machine, while effective, requires additional space between the outer wall of the drum and the housing to account for the upper and lower counterweights.
Therefore, the inventors hereof have identified a need, particularly in view of trends toward the demand for larger treatment chambers (and therefore drums) and the inclusion of additional components inside of the housing of laundry treatment machines, especially washer/dryer combo machines, to position counterweights at locations other than the top and bottom of the outside surface of the drum.
This section provides a general summary of the disclosure, and is not a comprehensive disclosure of its full scope or all of its features.
A laundry treatment machine is disclosed. The laundry treatment machine has a housing and a cylindrical drum horizontally mounted inside of the housing. The drum defines a treatment chamber and an opening through which to place laundry in the treatment chamber. The laundry treatment machine further has a front ring assembly surrounding the outer periphery of the opening to the treatment chamber and at least one counterweight. In one embodiment, the at least one counterweight is mounted to the front ring assembly. In another embodiment, the at least one counterweight is positioned between a front surface of the front ring assembly and a front fascia.
The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only of selected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Though not illustrated, it is also contemplated and within the scope of this disclosure to attach the upper and lower counterweights 46a and 46b to the front fascia 20 (instead of the front ring assembly 44), still maintaining the same position of the counterweights between the front ring assembly 44 and the front fascia 20.
The foregoing description of the embodiments has been provided for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure. Individual elements or features of a particular embodiment are generally not limited to that particular embodiment, but, where applicable, are interchangeable and can be used in a selected embodiment, even if not specifically shown or described. The same may also be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the disclosure, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the disclosure.
